Tropical storm dampens Labor Day festivities in Huntsville

The last day of the Northeast Alabama State Fair was a wet one Monday, courtesy of Tropical Storm Lee. The remnants of the storm dampened Labor Day activities throughout Huntsville. (The Huntsville Times/Dave Dieter)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The remnants of Tropical Storm Lee drenched Northern Alabama on Monday, making for a dreary Labor Day holiday.

Huntsville had received 2.97 inches of rain by 4:30 p.m., "shattering" its previous record for Sept. 5, said Steve Shumway, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The previous record for that date was 1.42 inches in 1937.

The steady rain is anticipated to continue throughout the day today, Shumway said.

"The storm system that's producing this is very slow-moving," Shumway said. "It's not going anywhere anytime soon."

The record-setting rain on Monday washed out the last day of the Northeast Alabama State Fair, where carnival workers were disassembling rides by 4 p.m. The event was initially slated to be open until 8 p.m.

Some families ventured into the soggy weather to visit the U.S. Space & Rocket Center for the final day of the dinosaur exhibit "A T. rex Named Sue."

It and its companion exhibit, "Be the Dinosaur," opened in May. Staff at the Space & Rocket Center said the last heavy day of visitors was on Sunday, before the tropical storm moved into the area.

Joel Hobbs of Huntsville took in the exhibits with his wife, Katy, and daughters, 5-year-old Ellie and 3-year-old Emma. Hobbs, who works for NASA, said the exhibits were a good way to spend a rainy day.

"We wanted to see the dinosaurs before they left," Hobbs said.

Ellie talked about all of the dinosaur bones she and her sister saw.

"The triceratops," Ellie said shyly, when asked about her favorite part of the exhibit.

Little Emma named the center's iconic Saturn V rocket as her favorite.

Besides dampening barbecues and other outdoor activities, Lee did little damage in the Huntsville area. Bill Yell, spokesman for Huntsville Utilities, said there were just two large-scale power outages.

"Earlier today, there was a large outage in the Harvest area when a tree limb fell across power lines on Old Railroad Bed Road," Yell said in a statement.

Crews also spent the late afternoon working to restore power to the southwest portion of the city, in the areas of Triana Boulevard and Drake Avenue.

There were also a few outages that affected smaller numbers of customers throughout the day Monday, Yell said.

Shumway said the rain today would not be as heavy or as widespread as what fell Monday, but that the chance of rain would remain all week. The seven-day forecast indicates a 20 percent chance of rain Wednesday through Monday.